How many cals should I be eating?

buzz3d269

Hi all,
I've read so many posts, and am thoroughly confused... I am 29, 169cm tall (I think that's about 5 foot 6?), currently 216lb and want to lose about 65lb. I don't move much at work, but have a fitbit and consistently log 11000 steps a day (about 3000 whilst at work, the extra are done by walking after work).

When I first started MFP, after setting my goals, MFP set a calorie goal of 1200. I had no issues keeping to this (honestly! I'm not a snacker, and I wasn't going hungry), however after reading a lot on the forums, I'm realising that this isn't recommended for many reasons. I've since done a bit of research, and discovered that my BMR is around 1515 (this is from http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/). MFP/Fitbit give me around 600-700 cals a day for exercise. Online calculators recommend my TDEE is around 2400.

My questions:
From what I've read, you should never eat below your BMR, is this correct?
With a BMR of 1515 and a TDEE of 2400 am I correct that I should be eating between these two to lose weight? General consensus seems to be about 20% less than TDEE, so around 1920?
And on days when I exercise (almost everyday), should I be eating those exercise calories back, so I am at the very least above 1515 NET?

Sorry for all the questions, it's just that it's a bit of a stretch for my mind to accept all of this, as I am comfortable on the lower calories, in fact I would need to consciously eat more/choose higher calorie foods to eat, to hit those numbers. Thanks for any insight

SezxyStef

You can eat below your BMR...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1058378-oh-noes-i-am-eating-below-my-bmr

If you are going to use the TDEE number keep in mind it is just an estimate from a website. I find them high but regardless you DO NOT eat exercise calories back when using TDEE method. You eat the same number of calories everyday regardless of exercise.

When I started here I was 185 and 5 ft 7 (lost weight before I joined) but my TDEE was 1995...and I exercised 5-7 days a week for 30mins a day doing circut training. Your TDEE sounds reasonable...I personally if I were you eat 1800=1850 a day and see how that works. (Just because I know those sites are high) if you find you are losing more than 1.5lb a week up it again to 1920.

terbusha

Hi, here's what has worked for me and the people that I coach. You need to be eating at a calorie deficit to lose weight/body fat. Calculators can be a good place to start, but they make assumptions about you that may not be correct. The #s they spit out may not be exactly where you need to be. The best way to figure out what is right for you, is to do some trial and error. I'd start with 1600 calories/day. Log all of your food (be honest because the scale will be), get your exercise in 5-6 days/week and hit your calorie goal for a week or 2. At the end of this timeframe, weigh in. If you don't lose enough weight, you can drop to 1500 cal/day and retry. If you lose too much weight, you can increase your calorie goal to 1700 and retry. After a few rounds of this you'll figure out what your optimal calorie range is for losing weight.

What is your plan for exercise? You should be exercising 5-6 days/week for efficient weight loss. Also, do you have certain macronutrient goals as well? A high protein diet (as long as you don't have kidney issues) goes a long way to increase fat loss.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Allan

buzz3d269

Thanks for the advice I've played around with the calculators, and changed my weight loss goal down a bit, and am aiming for about 1500 NET a day, and will try to stick to it for a few weeks, and then see how I go from there. As I'm only at the beginning of my journey, I don't have many stats to play with, so will just wait and watch

Mischievous_Rascal

Think of it this way: MFP assumes no exercise and gives you a deficit at 1200 and tells you to eat back your exercise calories, equaling about 1800-1900 per day). TDEE includes your exercise and then gives you a deficit of about 1900. Roughly the same number, right? Starting at 1500 net sounds good. You can reassess after a four or five weeks and adjust from there.

Personally, I'm a bit of a numbers geek, so I have a spreadsheet where I input my weight and calorie intake each day, so over the span of a few months I have figured out my true TDEE number. (This isn't for everyone, though, especially if you get hung up over regular weight fluctuations. It's a long term thinking kind of process.)

mumblemagic

You can eat below your BMR - for reasons explained in the link the other poster said.

To lose weight, you simply need to be at less than your TDEE, so if the calculators are correct then anywhere below about 2400 should be fine.

I am surprised that MFP put you on a 1200 calorie limit - I have found its calculator to be fairly good when compared to other websites and calculators. It works out your TDEE and subtracks 500 calories per day from it, for 1 lb per week weight loss (0.5 kg per week if you are metric). If you put the correct numbers in, it should have come out with a reasonable number and not 1200 calories!

So, I suggest you re-enter your numbers into MFP and see what it says.
- make sure you have the units set correctly. If you measure in kg and MFP thinks you're doing lbs you will get a ridiculously low number!
- make sure you get the correct current weight and height in.
- set your weight loss to 1lb per week or 0.5 per week if you are metric. This is generally considered to be a healthy rate of weight loss.
- with activity levels you have two options. It sounds like you are lightly or moderately active: 1. You could enter this in, and not log any exercise or eat back exercise calories (i.e. allow MFP to pre-calculate your exercise calories and include that in your limit), or 2. you could set yourself as sedentary and log all your exercise, eating back your exercise calories.

TL;DR It may have given you the 1200 limit because the units setting was incorrect, or because you set your weight loss goal too high. Re-check these and go with the MFP method at 1 lb per week loss


Edit:

Also this:

Think of it this way: MFP assumes no exercise and gives you a deficit at 1200 and tells you to eat back your exercise calories, equaling about 1800-1900 per day). TDEE includes your exercise and then gives you a deficit of about 1900. Roughly the same number, right? Starting at 1500 net sounds good. You can reassess after a four or five weeks and adjust from there.

Personally, I'm a bit of a numbers geek, so I have a spreadsheet where I input my weight and calorie intake each day, so over the span of a few months I have figured out my true TDEE number. (This isn't for everyone, though, especially if you get hung up over regular weight fluctuations. It's a long term thinking kind of process.)